Knuckle Jack

Jack has never left his small Catskill town. Shadowed by a childhood tragedy, he limps through his days in a lonely haze of drugs, booze and bitterness. At night he paints pictures of dark highways-- different versions of the same nightmarish stark scene-- which he then plants inside the wealthy weekenders' homes he robs in between disability checks. He's not stealing; just "trading art for things they don't need."When Jack is summoned by his mother, the estranged son is surprised when his 8 year old niece Frankie opens the door. Frankie's mother is battling cancer, and Jack begrudgingly takes on the task of caring for the quiet girl. "Don't f**k anything up," he says to her as they head home.Not one to let a little girl cramp his style, Jack carries on business-as-usual, drinking, painting and thieving. Soon Frankie catches on to his mysterious house visits and wants in on the action. Looks like larceny runs in the family.These two banged-up, lonesome souls-- one broken, the other braving a new kind of dark-- burn through the thick Catskill summer. Jack needs his weed; Frankie needs her mom; but before long they need each other. Along the way we meet colorful locals-- dealers, sellers, good-time girls.... all of them, like Jack and Frankie, just hoping to make a buck, make a date, make it to tomorrow. KNUCKLE JACK is a portrait of what we've lost and how we get by. There's an art to survival: A life like Jack's, canvassed in black and washed in despair, paints by its own cruel numbers. But sometimes a tiny crack (or an 8 year-old girl) lets in a sliver of light, and a whole new picture is revealed.